EPISODE OF THE SPIDER AND THE BEE - Jonathan swift

EPISODE OF THE SPIDER AND THE BEE

 Jonathan swift

The episode of the Spider and the Bee is one of the most interesting incidents of The Battle of Books. Technically it is an episode because it is introduced as an interlude at a time when the ancients and the Moderns are hurling hot words at one another and are preparing to launch the offensive. In terms of its dramatic quality and intrinsic worth it is more than an episode.

The incident of the spider and the bee took place at a time when the Ancients and the Moderns were exchanging hot words and were fast moving towards a serious crisis. When the two parties were well-set for measuring their strength, the interesting incident of the spider and the bee occurred. A spider lived in his cobweb upon the highest corner of a large window in St. James's Library. A wandering bee entered into the library through a broken glass pane. He flew into the spider's web. With great difficulty he extracted himself unharmed and paused at a safe distance to cleanse his wings. The spider, whose web had been ruined, saw the culprit and shouted insults at him. He called the bee a rogue, a vagabond without hearth or home of his own living upon universal plunder of nature. The spider maintained his superiority by saying that he was a domestic animal living in a castle, which he had himself built. Moreover, he was furnished with a native stock within his own body. To all this, the bee replied courteously that though he wandered far and wide, he collected honey from flowers without harming them in any way. On the other hand, the spider could only gather dirt and poison by remaining at home. The bee said tat the spider turned everything, with which he came in contact, into poison.  The bee ridiculed the spider for his vaunted skill in Mathematics. The bee claimed that he had nature's choicest gifts -- wings and musical voice. The arrogant spider was on the verge of bursting with rage and pride, but the bee disdained further argumentation and flew away to a bed of flowers.

The episode of Spider and the Bee is a significant aside to the main battle between the books. The spider stands for modern innovators and scientists who thought that only mechanical inventions could help the mankind. The spider is an architect. He builds his castle out of material spun out by himself without depending on nature to assist him. The bee depends on the help from flowers, wings and voice. The spider for modern scientists who believe that science is a powerful instrument of progress. But swift was against the inventions of science and later on made fun of scientists in The Gulliver's Travels. He was of the view that the path of progress is not the spider's way but of the bee. The moderns live on controversies and personal animosities. Whereas the ancients did not indulge in poisonous polemics. The ancients writers like Homer and Virgil brought out sweetness and light, collecting the two after ranging widely over the realms of matter and mind.

****